Development of a Model for Predicting the Volatilization Flux from Unsaturated Soil Contaminated by Volatile Chemical Substances

Abstract

This work developed a model for predicting the volatilization flux from the unsaturated soil contaminated by volatile chemical substances (VCSs) such as mercury and benzene. The model considers a series of phenomena under the unsaturated condition such as multi-phase flow consisting of a non-aqueous phase liquid, water, and gases together with the permeation of rainfall into the surface soil, the volatilization/condensation of VCSs, and the adsorption/desorption of VCSs. On this basis, this work clarified a mechanism for the generation of a volatilization flux at the ground surface. In addition, the effects of various transport phenomena in the surface soil on the magnitude and seasonal changes in this flux due to variations in weather factors such as rainfall level, temperature, and air pressure were quantitatively evaluated. This newly developed prediction model can be utilized to estimate dynamic variations in the flux under real-environmental conditions.